05/05/2024
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton finished P6 with George Russell P8 in Sunday's Miami Grand Prix. George lined up P7 on a used Medium tyre whilst Lewis started P8 on a new set of the Hard compound.
George was unfortunate to get boxed in on the outside at the start and dropped to P10, whilst Lewis ended the opening laps in P8. Both drivers were able to make progress from there in the early stages, pitting from a net P7 and P8 at the time.
A Safety Car period just a few laps later helped the VCARB of Tsunoda jump our two drivers. Lewis, who showed strong pace in his now Medium shod car, dispatched him quickly and then the McLaren of Piastri. He pressured Perez throughout the final stint but couldn't quite pass the Red Bull and had to settle for P6. George meanwhile was less happy on the Hard tyre and had to settle for P8.
The team also sends its congratulations to Lando Norris and McLaren; Lando took his maiden victory in F1 whilst McLaren take to the top step with Mercedes power for the first time since Monza 2021.
Lewis Hamilton: I am so happy for Lando and McLaren. They have both been doing a great job and they deserve today's victory. It's great to see McLaren so competitive. I also know how special it is to get your first Grand Prix victory so a big well done to Lando.
In my race today, I had some enjoyable battles out there. I was giving it everything I had to make progress and made a couple of good overtakes. We were challenging the Red Bull at the end so to be able to race them felt great. Today was probably the best day of racing I've had this year, so we just need to keep pushing. We've got some more small upgrades coming for Imola. Others are developing too but we will keep working hard.
George Russell: A massive well done to Lando and McLaren. He truly deserves it, and all told, he probably deserves to have more than one victory already by now. We've been racing each other for a long time; he's put so much hard work in, and I had no doubts that he would win in F1. I'm very happy for him.
My race today was difficult. I lost a few positions at the start and then in the final stint, I had no pace on the Hard tyre and was struggling a lot. We will go away and assess why that was. Our lack of speed was quite unexpected, whilst Lewis had a strong race so there was definite speed in the car.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: Firstly, well done to McLaren and Lando. He has long been overdue his first win and today he drove a very strong race. McLaren have been on a big upward trajectory since last year and that is good for us to see; it shows what is possible. Congratulations too to everyone involved in designing, manufacturing, and operating the Mercedes Power Unit at High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth.
The good news in our race today was that, like-for-like on the Medium tyre, we showed that we had good speed. Lewis was faster than Perez in the Red Bull ahead on the same compound but wasn't quite able to make the overtake. George struggled a little more on the Hard tyre but overall it was encouraging to see the improvements we made from Friday and that we had solid pace compared to others.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: Firstly, well done to Lando and McLaren. It was a very impressive performance from the team and driver today. They have done a great job and are fully deserving of victory. We know we've got work to do to catch them, but it offers encouragement to see how much of an improvement they have delivered in the space of 12 months.
Our race today was relatively straightforward. We knew it was going to be hard to move forward; the car hasn't been handling well around this track and we've struggled in the slower corners particularly. Lewis had a tough stint on the Hard but after the restart was much happier with the car on the Medium compound. Unfortunately we didn't quite have the straight-line speed to get past Perez, but it was good to be able to race him at the end. It was a frustrating afternoon for George meanwhile. He was sliding around and struggling to get the tyres to bite. We'll look into that over the next few days.
Our focus is of course on making the car faster. We have some good developments in the pipeline and will push hard to get them to the car as soon as we can.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Miami here.